Walter has been engaged in architectural commissions, urban design, art installations, and research for over twenty years. In his teaching and practice, Walter is committed to the development of environments which reflect their place and time through how people inhabit various geographies. Earlier projects located in Oakland including Lafayette Square and Splash Pad Parks are regarded as transformative designs for the field of Landscape Architecture.

Hood Design is the designer for the gardens and landscape at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, CA; the new Sculpture Terrace for the Jackson Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY; landscape and terrace for The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, CA; and gardens of The Cooper Hewett Museum in New York City, NY. New projects included the landscape for International African American Museum in Charleston, SC; and Hilltop Park on Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco, CA. Recently, Hood won the design competition with the City of Nashville, TN to create new public art commemorating the City’s role in the historic Civil Rights Movement;. Other recent design competition awards include Garden Passage, a public artwork in Pittsburgh, PA; and a 1.1 megawatt photovoltaic array within the campus landscape at the University at Buffalo, NY.

In 2009-10 Walter received the Cooper-Hewett National Design for Landscape Architect, and in 2010 was bestowed the title, Master of Design, by Fast Company magazine. In 2013, Hood was appointed as the inaugural holder of the David K. Woo chair in Environmental Design. He has exhibited and lectured on his professional projects and speculative works internationally.